Grayling faces confidence challenge

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TRANSPORT secretary Chris Grayling faces a motion of no confidence in the House of Commons today.

Labour MPs will try to force a vote on the matter, which is an established Parliamentary procedure to test the extent of support in the House for ministers like Mr Grayling, particularly his recent handling of the disruption which has followed timetable changes on 20 May.

The wording of the motion includes an accusation that ‘Chris Grayling has failed to fulfil his basic duty to manage our railways’.

Shadow transport spokesman Andy McDonald said: “Chris Grayling has failed to fulfil his basic duty to manage our railways, and failed to take responsibility for the chaos and disruption that has affected thousands of commuters across the North of England. While officials within rail franchises have resigned and forgone bonuses, the Secretary of State has continued to pass the buck.

“Passengers across our country have no confidence in Chris Grayling. It’s time Parliament steps in to hold him to account, and immediately terminate the Northern and Govia Thameslink Railways franchises, to end the crisis in our railways.”

Reader Comments:

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Neil Palmer, Waterloo

There goes Andy McDonald trying to score political points by conveniently ignoring the facts. If you "immediately terminate the Northern and Govia Thameslink Railways franchises" how exactly is that going "to end the crisis in our railways" when a large part of this problem is down to Network Rail, which is already nationalised?

Tony Pearce, Reading

Silly Political Games. No wonder everyone holds all Politicians in such low esteem. I still haven't worked out exactly what happened, - with all the checks and balances that have been in place to prevent this happening. As the BBC put it to the Labour Spokesman - 'Do you really expect the Transport Secretary to be there pouring over a Timetable Spread-sheet to see if it all works properly ?' He is advised by Civil Servants and presumably they said it was OK. Perhaps Labour could help their Union Friends call off any more strikes until this new Timetable is sorted out ?